A 33-unit apartment building for low-income families is in the works in downtown Des Moines.
Polk County supervisors on Tuesday, May 5, unanimously approved earmarking $200,000 to help the Oakridge Neighborhood purchase a vacant parking lot at 1230 Oakridge Dr. for a multi-story apartment. Led by Oakridge Neighborhood, the state’s largest affordable housing neighborhood nonprofit agency, the mixed-use project called Cynergy aims to boost the number of affordable housing units in Polk County.
Cynergy is an opportunity to not only build affordable housing stock in the community, but to help the economy thrive, Deidre DeJear, president and CEO of Oakridge Neighborhood, said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Cynergy links housing and a wellness hub to opportunity by creating space for families to thrive, small businesses to grow, and the Center Street corridor to continue its legacy of local commerce and community,” DeJear wrote in a statement.
The housing project is meant to help families in Polk County, where rent has increased by 18% from 2020 to 2023, DeJear said in a news release from Oakridge Neighborhood. More than 1,500 Des Moines families who rent are living in overcrowded homes, and nearly 7,000 large family households who rent are considered cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 50% of their monthly income on housing costs, according to Des Moines’ 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan. Large family households are those with five or more people.
The apartment building next to Mainframe Studios downtown will reserve about 60% of its units for families that earn 60% of the area’s median income, according to the Oakridge news release. About 40% of the building will have three- and four-bedroom units. In the Des Moines metro, a family of four earning 60% of the area median income is about $68,700 in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The building could also host a variety of wellness services and retailers, including a dentistry, wellness spa and a braid bar, the Oakridge release stated. Residents would have access to Oakridge Neighborhood’s programs, including workforce, youth and early childhood education programs.
The county’s $200,000 contribution is from Emergency Rental Assistance funding, COVID-19-era dollars that are part of the American Rescue Plan Act, county officials said in a news release. The total project is estimated between $15 million and $16 million, Oakridge officials said.
The project also has received $200,000 from the Greater Des Moines Foundation, a preliminaryaward of $25,000 from the City of Des Moines, as well as contributions from individual donors, the news release stated.
Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@dmreg.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Oakridge plans $15M affordable Des Moines housing project for families
Reporting by Virginia Barreda, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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